recourse
[ree-kawrs, -kohrs, ri-kawrs, -kohrs]
- access or resort to a person or thing for help or protection: to have recourse to the courts for justice.
- a person or thing resorted to for help or protection.
- the right to collect from a maker or endorser of a negotiable instrument. The endorser may add the words “without recourse” on the instrument, thereby transferring the instrument without assuming any liability.
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Origin of recourse
1350–1400; Middle English recours < Old French < Late Latin recursus, Latin: return, retreat, noun use of past participle of recurrere to run back; see recur
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for recourse
Contemporary Examples
What recourse would they have to prove that they should be eligible for release?
I know that it might get nowhere, but this is my only recourse.
Had the board decided to give Eich a few weeks to prove himself, those who disagreed would have had no recourse.
They, according to one juror, who spoke to Nightline, believed Dunn had no recourse but to shoot.
However well-intentioned, we are not sure that this bill would be the most effective means of recourse.
The Movement to Boycott the American Studies Association for Boycotting IsraelDavid Freedlander
February 15, 2014
Historical Examples
So much the worse for him, if he has not recourse to their remedies.
The Imaginary InvalidMolire
When did a rheumatic ploughman have recourse to Bath or Buxton?
In the Heart of VosgesMatilda Betham-Edwards
I am grieved to be driven to have recourse to the following artifices.
Clarissa, Volume 2 (of 9)Samuel Richardson
When once a man has recourse to reason and precision, there is an end of love.
Tales And Novels, Volume 8 (of 10)Maria Edgeworth
So, in this dilemma, I had recourse to a piece of jesuitry, of which I was not a little proud.
Henry DunbarM. E. Braddon
recourse
- the act of resorting to a person, course of action, etc, in difficulty or danger (esp in the phrase have recourse to)
- a person, organization, or course of action that is turned to for help, protection, etc
- the right to demand payment, esp from the drawer or endorser of a bill of exchange or other negotiable instrument when the person accepting it fails to pay
- without recourse a qualified endorsement on such a negotiable instrument, by which the endorser protects himself or herself from liability to subsequent holders
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Word Origin
C14: from Old French recours, from Late Latin recursus a running back, from re- + currere to run
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for recourse
n.
late 14c., from Old French recours (13c.), from Latin recursus "a return, a retreat," literally "a running back, a going back," from stem of past participle of recurrere "run back, return" (see recur).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper